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There’s a Really Good Reason to Give This Dish a Chance

Victoria Beckham’s makeup artist swears it can help repair damaged skin.

Food
There’s a Really Good Reason to Give This Dish a Chance

If there’s anyone who knows about how filling your body with vitamin-rich and natural foods can be amazing for your skin, it’s makeup artist Wendy Rowe, who’s painted the faces of everyone from Sienna Miller to Daria Werbowy and Victoria Beckham, the former of which wrote the foreword to Rowe’s new book, Eat Beautiful, which features 70 recipes created to enhance your skin. We’ve already shown you her delicious zucchini pasta dish, avocado and beet salad, and gluten-free almond and orange cake. Herein, she makes the case for giving the most underrated fish, the sardine, a chance with her tasty spin on toast.

 


Sardines on Buckwheat Flatbreads

“I keep cans of sardines in my pantry to have as a simple snack—great on toast with a sprinkling of sea salt and cracked black pepper. While they’re lower in mercury than other sea fish, it’s important to buy wild-caught sardines and opt for those packed in water or oil rather than brine—you can always add the salt later. Even better, buy them fresh from your fishmonger.

“The skin needs a moisture injection to help protect and prepare it for winter. One of the best ways to help repair and nourish skin is by eating food that contains omega-3 fatty acids and good oils. Oily fish is one of the best sources, and sardines in particular are rich in omega-3 and selenium, which helps repair the skin after UV damage. This recipe is really simple—sardines already have so much flavor, you only need to add some lemon and herbs and they taste amazing!”

 

Ingredients:

4 tbsp buckwheat flour, plus extra for dusting
raw coconut oil, for frying
4 fresh sardines, gutted and cleaned (ask your fishmonger to do this)
handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped, plus extra to serve
juice of ½ lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 watermelon radish (or a handful of red radishes), sliced into thin circles
lemon wedges

 

Directions:

1. Place the flour in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of water and knead together to make a dough. (Buckwheat can be quite sticky, so you may need to add more flour.)

2. Roll the dough into a tube and slice into four sections. On a work surface lightly dusted with flour, roll each piece out into a flatbread about ⅛ inch thick.

3. Heat a little coconut oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat, add a flatbread, and cook on each side for 2–3 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate, and cook the remaining flatbreads in the same way.

4. Meanwhile, cook the sardines. Melt 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a large skillet and add the sardines, parsley, and lemon juice. Season with a little salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through (see tip).

5. To assemble, place slices of radish on top of each flatbread, top with a sardine, and serve with extra parsley sprinkled over and a wedge of lemon.

Tip: The only downside of cooking fresh sardines is that they will stink up your house! To avoid this, cook them outdoors on the grill.

 

Photo: Courtesy of Wendy Rowe

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